How to grow your audience on LinkedIn (and why should you care)
Business Development | Content Marketing | Digital Marketing | Lead Generation
Key takeaways
Grow your personal network by searching for decision-makers within your target audience.
Regularly post high-quality content on your company’s page.
As you grow your own personal network on LinkedIn, share your company’s content on your newsfeed. This will allow your new connections to see the content.
Use paid advertising on LinkedIn to promote content that acts like a lead magnet.
When it comes to social media platforms, Facebook, Youtube and WhatsApp are the heavy hitters of the social media world.
However, LinkedIn stands out as the quintessential platform for professionals. This means that when you are looking at growing your social media audience in the B2B space, LinkedIn is where you want to start.
Merely having a LinkedIn profile for your business isn’t enough. To truly harness its potential, you need to cultivate and expand your audience.
In this blog, we’ll delve into the strategies for how to grow your audience on social media and how it can help your business grow.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is like an online social media platform that operates like a virtual networking event. With over 900 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is a great place to find and connect with decision-makers in your target market as well as leaders in your industry. You can also advertise your services, find job opportunities, and share your work experiences and insights.
How to grow your audience on social media: LinkedIn style
1. Optimise your company page
Begin with the basics. Ensure that your LinkedIn Company Page is fully optimised so that it is easy to find.
It needs:
- A compelling description in the “about us” section (that includes relevant keywords and hashtags)
- A high-resolution logo
- An engaging banner image
- A link to your website
Like redecorating your reception area or store, ensuring your profile is attractive and well cared for is a strong signal that you’re a legitimate and caring company.
2. Create and share valuable content
As with everywhere else in the SEO world, content is king on LinkedIn.
Produce and share high-quality content that educates, entertains, and adds value to your target audience.
This could include
- blog posts,
- case studies,
- whitepapers,
- infographics,
- videos,
- thought leadership articles that showcase your industry expertise and address your audience’s pain points and challenges.
- visual assets that showcase the benefits of your product or service whenever possible.
- webinars. Teaming up with influencers, your industry buddies, or businesses that go hand-in-hand with yours is a super cool way to get noticed on LinkedIn. Think about working together on some fun content, giving each other shoutouts, and tapping into each other’s followers to really make a splash. Imagine hosting a fun, free webinar with your partners – it’s a great way to grab attention and show off what you all can do!
Users are hungry for content – we’re consumers by nature – and investing in high-quality content will keep users coming back for more.
3. Grow your personal virtual network
Reach out and try to connect with as many people as possible. Target people who are most likely the decision-makers in your industry using LinkedIn’s search function and filters.
In the image below, you can see that I’ve searched for marketing managers (one of the decision-makers in our target market). If I want to, I could filter according to seniority, connections, location and current company if I wanted – along with a whole load of other categories.
4. Leverage your virtual network
This is a key step – one that people forget to do.
As you reach out to connect with decision-makers, make sure you reshare your company’s content on your personal profile’s newsfeed. If you do this, as you grow your personal virtual network on LinkedIn they will see your company’s content too.
If it’s high-quality, your company’s content will help to nurture these leads, warming them up and potentially leading to a sale.
4. Engage with your audience
It’s all about being super active and chatty. Make sure you’re quick to reply to comments, messages, and questions. Jump into discussions and groups that match what you’re all about. And hey, don’t be shy! Like, share, and comment on posts from the big names, thinkers, and potential customers in your field.
5. Leverage LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn offers a suite of advertising solutions tailored for B2B companies, including Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, and LinkedIn Ads.
Invest in targeted advertising campaigns to reach your ideal audience based on job title, industry, company size, and other demographics where it may be harder to reach them in other ways.
Advertising lead magnets that hook in potential leads who aren’t ready to enquire yet is a great way to grow your audience.
If your lead magnet is behind an email gateway you can capture their information and add them to any email campaigns you run (just make sure you get their consent to be added to your emailing list).
6. Cultivate employee advocacy
Use your team. Encourage your employees to be your cheerleaders on LinkedIn. They can share company news, industry insights, and smart thoughts with their pals.
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Why does growing your social media audience on Linkedin matter?
Let’s address the ‘why.’ Why should you care about how to grow your audience on LinkedIn?
Make the right connections
When users create a profile on LinkedIn they are asked to fill in details about their job role, skills, and past work experiences. Using the platform’s search tool you can easily find and connect with big shots, industry experts, and potential clients who really matter.
Think of it as your digital networking party – you get to mingle with decision-makers and influencers based on their job, company, or even where they’re located!
Boost your brand
By sharing cool and helpful stuff, like your insights or success stories, on your personal or business profile you can let everyone know you’re a pro in your area. Plus, it makes your brand look credible and knowledgeable.
Find new leads and sales
LinkedIn is like a treasure trove for finding new business, especially if you’re in the B2B world. The more people you connect with, the more you can grow your network. This means more eyes on your content, more leads, and more chances to turn those leads into actual sales. All it takes is some smart content and reaching out to the right folks.
Attract top talent
If you’re running a smaller or medium-sized business, snagging the best talent out there is key. By growing your presence on LinkedIn, you can show off what makes your company an awesome place to work. This is a great way to build up your employer brand and attract the kind of people who’ll help your business shine.
Stay on top of your game
Keep can keep an eye on what other big names in your industry are up to. By joining in on online discussions on LinkedIn and following industry leaders, you’ll pick up on what clients want, what your competitors are up to, and the new trends shaping your market. This kind of insight is gold for making smart business moves and planning ahead.
Generate traffic to your website
By posting blogs on your newsfeed, your network has the opportunity to click through to your website. This provides valuable website traffic. This will support your SEO campaign and help your website become more visible on search engines for leads who are ready to buy.
Grow your audience on LinkedIn
If you remember nothing else, remember these two things – regularly post high-quality content and share that content on your personal newsfeed. By prioritising audience growth on LinkedIn your company can unlock a wealth of opportunities for networking, website traffic, lead generation, and brand building in the digital landscape.